In this fic:

Italics are thoughts

<This is telepathic communication>

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Memories of the Past and Friendships of the Future

by Koe760

Chapter 7: Unforeseen Events

Kenshin took in deep shuddering breaths, his hand still clutching his scarred cheek as he stared in horror at the black hawk. Suddenly memories came crashing down upon his already weakened mind, causing him to feel faint and nauseous. Now gasping for air, his other hand came up to grab his head, as the painful memory caused him to slowly sink down to his knees.

As his vision started to fade in on him, he desperately tried to gain control of himself, uncertain as to why he was reacting so dramatically toward a memory.

No longer in control of his raging emotions or his trembling body, he succumbed to the darkness that awaited him, hoping it would take the memories away or at least give him back his control.

~*~

As Moira stopped in front of the redhead she allowed him to observe her, while she watched for any signs of recognition come from him. She felt herself relaxing slightly as he simply stared blankly at her, obviously not realizing who she was.

She felt her familiar, Kieran, send a comforting and reassuring thought her way. Casually she lifted her manicured hand to stroke his silken head as a way to show her appreciation.

Suddenly she heard the redhead gasp out, and as she turned her gaze back to him she froze when she saw the expression on his face: recognition. Her first thought was that he had finally recognized her identity, something that she really didn't want to be true. But as her rationality came back, she realized that he wasn't staring at her, but at Kieran.

Not taking her eyes from the one she knew as Shinta, she sent her thoughts toward the object of his attention.

<Why does he recognize you? He shouldn't. You weren't with me until after he was gone> She spoke to Kieran.

She heard him mentally cackle before he replied, <I gave the dragon-brat his scar when I was scouting out Japan a few months ago.>

So that's why he is clutching his cheek, she mused. She was about to angrily question Kieran on why he hadn't informed her that the redhead was alive, but she was distracted by the sight of Shinta gasping for breath then falling to his knees. She stared in wonder as his eyes rolled back in his head and he fell down to the floor to lie still and unmoving.

She blinked in bewilderment down at the now unconscious redhead, then said out loud to no one in particular, "Well, that was certainly unexpected." She wondered what could have caused such an intense reaction. Maybe he was ill or it was a side affect from being introduced to magic too quickly. Shrugging, she was about to call for Drefan to take Shinta back to his cell, when another unexpected occurrence happened.

~*~

Drizzt felt something akin to relief as he neared the bottom of the hill that he was currently sliding down face-first. He now saw that at the bottom, it started to slope up into another hill. With the momentum that he had, he figured that he would just slide right up the next hill and slowly come to a halt as the momentum was spent.

His relief quickly vanished to be replaced by a much different emotion as he got nearer to the bottom and had a better look at the next hill. He could now make out that the snow that made the upward slope was really powdery and loose, which would make it hard for it to support the weight of a certain elf that was about to come in contact with it in a matter of seconds.

Just as he was about to reach the upward slope, he squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the inevitable to happen. Instead of sliding up the slope he kept going strait...strait into the snowy rise.

~*~

Guenhwyvar reached the bottom without any problems and promptly went to Drizzt, whose lower body and legs were poking out from underneath a pile of snow. She shook her head in exasperation then started pawing at the snow, digging out the soon to be frozen drow.

~*~

Drizzt shot up from beneath the snow, spluttering and shaking as he gingerly held his bruised head. Blinking, he wondered how in the Nine Hells he had injured his head. The snow wasn't that hard...Examining the snow more closely he searched for his reason of pain, suspecting that it was probably just a rock.

Crouching down where he had been buried, he raked his hands through the rumpled snow until they came in contact with something smooth and hard. Brows wrinkled in confusement, he called to Guen to come.

Answering his non-spoken request, she used her front paws to push aside the snow until they saw what appeared to be smoothed stone. As if a wall of some sort had been covered by layers of snowfall.

Feeling more like an idiot than he had ever felt before, Drizzt looked up and beheld to rest of the wall, towering over the two. It blended right in with the surrounding scenery, which was probably the reason why it was made out of white stone.

Then for no apparent reason, he felt like he needed to be on the other side of this mysterious wall and find out what lay hidden behind it. Using his elf climbing abilities to his advantage, he gradually went higher up the wall. He reached the top with no further incident and cautiously peeked over. What he saw made his eyebrows shoot up in surprise. There appeared to be a castle sitting there made out of more white stone. It had multiple towers and gates and looked quite formidable to the surface dwelling drow. And surrounding this castle was what seemed to be many large groups of orcs and other such brainless monsters.

Without thinking he swung his body over the wall to land on the other side, Guen appearing at his heel.